Nigeria has unveiled a formidable squad for the 2025 World Athletics Relays scheduled to happen in Guangzhou, China, because the nation intensifies preparations to safe early qualification spots for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) confirmed that the nation will discipline groups in 4 of the six relay classes on the occasion: the boys’s 4x100m, girls’s 4x100m, blended 4x100m, and blended 4x400m.
Heading into the competitors with a mix of seasoned stars and rising skills, the Nigerian squad boasts a few of the nation’s most recognised names in world athletics.
Amongst them are the world report holder within the 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, American collegiate dash sensation Favour Ashe, and former U-20 World Champion Udodi Onwuzurike.
Amusan and Favour Ofili are additionally anticipated to offer important expertise and management within the girls’s and blended 4x100m relays.
The lads’s 4x100m crew will characteristic Alaba Akintola, Karlington Anunagba, Olaoye Folawiyo, Usheoritse Itsekiri, and the duo of Ashe and Onwuzurike, whose pace and baton change has been spectacular.
Picture: Amusan
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The ladies’s squad contains Amusan, Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Justina Eyakpobeyan, Obi Jennifer Chukwuka, and Success Umukoro—names which have proven quite a lot of consistency in each native and worldwide meets.
Within the blended 4x100m, Nigeria will once more mix the explosive tempo of Akintola, Ashe, Ofili, and Chukwuma with the dynamic contributions of Onwuzurike and Umukoro.
The blended 4x400m crew sees the return of 400m veterans Chidi Okezie and Ifeanyi Ojeli alongside Samson Nathaniel, Reward Idamadudu, Endurance Okon-George, and Omolara Ogunmakinju, all of whom have represented Nigeria on the most important levels.
Nigeria’s current performances in worldwide relay occasions lend optimism to their Guangzhou mission.
On the 2024 World Athletics Relays within the Bahamas, Nigeria’s blended 4x400m relay crew broke the African Document with a Nationwide Document time of three:12.87, securing a 4th-place end within the remaining.
In addition they certified for the Paris 2024 Olympics on this occasion. Moreover, three different Nigerian relay groups additionally secured Olympic berths: the boys’s 4x400m, girls’s 4x100m, and males’s 4x100m.
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The AFN has emphasised that the 2025 World Relays aren’t simply one other competitors however a strategic step towards securing early qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo.
The World Relays, organised biennially by World Athletics, function a world stage the place nationwide relay groups compete for automated entry into main championships.
This occasion is an important alternative to reset the narrative for Nigeria, which has a wealthy sprinting historical past however has struggled with consistency and depth lately.
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